Sophie Lewis
Like early pop artists, I have tapped into the rich seam of images that fill our everyday lives. The idea of returning high art back into an image of itself through the appropriation of everyday images. Through my work I wish to challenge the initial reaction and perception, often trying to confront it and question sexual content within the viewers mind.
Health instructions diagrams are reproduced into seductively large scale paintings. The images are sexually suggestive but are in no way offensive. Issues from menstruation to testicular cancer are confronted. My work can be seen to be quite flippant about critical subjects; I want people to be able to laugh at potentially serious topics, until social implications are realised. My work comes from a position which argues that the feminist political project is achieved or no longer relevant to ‘ordinary’ women and questions the unnecessary concern with the male gaze.
The materiality of the paintings glossy finish draws the viewer in further, the desire to look, heightened by the desire to touch. In photographs the work looks manufactured and perfect but up close they reveal themselves as laboriously handmade, with layers of household gloss paint, poured, painted and piped, some areas are rippled and pooled.
email: sophie_lewis@live.co.uk